Ministers

The Performers, Average Performers, Underperformers and Non-performers

Ministers’ Scorecard
While trying to pick the men and women who would help him exercise his mandate after his victory in the last presidential election, President Goodluck Jonathan was focused on assembling a team to drive his Transformation Agenda. He needed a crop of technocrats and politicians to help drive policy formulation and execution. He picked from an array of Nigerians both from home and abroad, including former Managing Director of World Bank, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina to form his cabinet of 42 men and women. One year along the line opinions are sharply divided whether his ministers have helped him to transform Nigeria or not.

In this report, assessing the performance of 34 of the ministers, a few have stood out, some have struggled with meeting the expectations of their jobs, while others have completely floundered. Yemi Ajayi, Festus Akanbi and Vincent Obia, review their stewardship and some of their key policies and accomplishments since the cabinet was formed almost a year ago, concluding that other than one or two members of the cabinet who stand head and shoulders above their colleagues, a lot more is expected of others who have failed to deliver on the transformation agenda of the administration.

The assessment focused on all the ministers and one ministers of state. However, Jumoke Akinjide, Minister of State for the FCT; Alhaji Bukar Tijani, Minister of State for Agriculture and  Rural Development; Hajia Zainab Kuchi, Minister of State for the Niger Delta; Dr. Mohammed Pate, Minister of State for Health; Alhaji Bashir Yugudu, Minister of State for Works; Darius Ishaku, Minister of State for Power; Samuel Ortom, Minister of State for Trade and Investment; and Alhaji Nurudeen Mohammed, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, who were assessed alongside their principals.

The Performers...

Agriculture Minister, Akinwunmi Adesina
Akinwunmi Adesina/Making Agriculture a Profitable Business *****
One of the stars of the cabinet and a first time Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina has in the past one year put in place measures to revolutionise the agriculture sector of the economy. His Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), introduced shortly after he came on board, is geared towards fully tapping the potential of the sector that accounts for about 45 percent of the nation’s GDP and is the largest employer of labour in the country.

In his one year in office, the minister succeeded in breaking the jinx in fertilizer distribution to farmers by beating the fertilizer cartel at their game. According to his plan, 20 million farmers across the country would benefit from the fertilizer voucher scheme and distribution of high-yield seedlings in the next four years. Already, his initiatives in the fertilizer distribution scheme are yielding fruit, as the middlemen who used to hoard the commodity have been taken out. Today, fertilizer is readily available to over 90 per cent of farmers in the country.

In other areas, Adesina has spearheaded the use of cassava alongside wheat for the production of bread. His aim is to encourage the production of cassava and whittle down Nigeria’s over-reliance on imported wheat. In this regard, the import duty on wheat is expected to increase from next month. Another food crop that has been given a similar boost by the minister is rice, on which a higher import duty is to be imposed in order to encourage local rice production. Several states have capitalised on the minister’s programmes by entering into agreements with foreign rice producers to grow and produce polished rice in their states.

In addition to enhancing productivity in the sector, the minister has initiated plans to build silos nationwide for the storage of food crops. He has also held a series of meetings with the Central Bank of Nigeria and commercial banks to make credit available to farmers at single-digit rates of interest. Although banks are still resistant to providing credit to the sector, observers believe that it is only a matter of time before they introduce specialised funding schemes to fund agriculture.

As a mark of the confidence reposed in Adesina by President Goodluck Jonathan, his agitation for improved funding for the sector was accommodated in the 2012 budget. Also, in support of his revolution in agriculture, the World Bank is committing N139.5 billion (about $900 million) to help in ensuring food security in Nigeria. Complementing Adesina is Alhaji Bukar Tijani, Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala/Finding the Fiscal Balance ****
The undisputable power-house in the Jonathan administration, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who doubles as the Coordinating Minister for Economy and Minister of Finance, no doubt, added credibility to the cabinet based on her formidable credentials locally and internationally.

A stickler for probity and excellence, Okonjo-Iweala’s persistent campaign for the effective management of the nation’s resources informed the government’s decision to adopt fiscal discipline, cut down on waste, and rein in debt and the budget deficit, especially in the 2012 budget.

This resulted in slight reduction of recurrent expenditure this year. Her target, however, is to cut recurrent spending to about 65 per cent of the total budget by 2015 so that more resources can be deployed on capital projects.

The minister, who narrowly lost her bid for the presidency of World Bank, has worked on rebuilding the nation’s decimated savings in the Excess Crude Account (ECA), which currently stands at $4.3 billion, and this is despite the monthly withdrawals by the three tiers of government. She has also been in negotiations with the 36 states of the federation to start up the Sovereign Wealth Fund as a replacement for the ECA.

Under her watch, the government established the Subsidy Re-investment Programme, through which savings accruing to the three tiers of government from the partial removal of the subsidy on petrol, can be deployed to projects. In her bid to keep the public informed on the savings, her ministry each month publishes the figures accruing to the federal, states and local governments under SURE-P.

In the area of the management of the Petroleum Support Fund, Okonjo-Iweala, in a bid to improve probity, terminated the appointment of the two audit firms contracted to verify fuel imports and discharge of the commodity at the depots. She also constituted a committee to verify outstanding subsidy claims by oil marketing companies.

Aviation Minister. Stella Oduah
Stella Oduah/Rebuilding Aviation ****
Ms. Stella Oduah, the Minister of Aviation, was active in the political campaign of the president, where she served as director of administration and finance, before last year’s presidential election. The Anambra State indigene ran a petroleum marketing company before entering into the political arena.

Oduah, 50, managed to navigate the turbulent world of aviation in Nigeria since her appointment in July last year. But the recent controversy over the fare disparity by foreign airlines plying the West African-London routes presented her a hard choice between deference to nationalistic sentiments and the economics of airline business.

Experts concede she made a wrong choice of the former when on March 26 she issued a 30-day ultimatum to British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to review their airfares or face a ban from the country’s airspace. The ultimatum has since expired and the federal government suspended the planned ban on both airlines in what it called a mark of respect for the National Assembly’s intervention in the imbroglio. But many knew that this was a face saving measure after the minister’s ill-advised threat to ban the airlines.

The review of concession pacts with aviation service providers was another issue that stirred controversy in the sector under Oduah. The minister said the policy was prompted by the non-performance of about 70 per cent of the concessions and leases in the aviation sector, a charge many of the concessionaires denied. In line with the policy, in March, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria terminated its concession with Maevis Nigeria Limited, which had been providing airport operations management services at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, since 2007.

Credit, nonetheless, must be given to Oduah for the effort by the Ministry of Aviation to completely rehabilitate and upgrade some of the country’s major airports. Reconstruction and rehabilitation work swung into full gear under her supervision and it is expected that airports in Lagos, Benin, Kano, Enugu and a few others will be completed in a matter of months.


Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke
Diezani Alison-Madueke/Reforming the Troubled Oil & Gas Sector ****
A second term-minister, Alison-Madueke, who superintends the Ministry of Petroleum, returned to the office last year to face fresh hurdles. After a slow start, it is to her credit that several enlightenment programmes were put in place to sensitise the nation on the economic imperatives of the removal of fuel subsidy.

However, Alison-Madueke, among other ministers, came under severe attack from the public in the first two weeks of the year when the federal government announced the removal of the subsidy on petrol. The public had demanded the probe of the subsidy cabal, greater transparency in the scheme, and improved management of the nation’s oil and gas sector.

Responding promptly to public criticism of her stewardship and the mismanagement of the sector, she set up various committees headed by respected private sector individuals to make recommendations on the restructuring of the petroleum industry. These include Special Taskforce on the Passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) led by Senator Udoma Udo Udoma; a Special Task Force on Governance and Controls at NNPC, headed by Mr. Dotun Sulaiman; the Petroleum Revenue Special Taskforce, headed by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu; and National Refineries Special Taskforce, headed by former Minister of Finance, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, with former Managing Director of Unipetrol, Mallam Yusuf Alli, as its alternate chairman. However, nothing has been heard of the committees since their establishment, and this is despite the fact three of the committees have exceeded the deadlines within which they were supposed to have submitted their reports to the minister.

But THISDAY checks revealled that the Ribadu committee may have unravelled huge debts owed in the sector, while putting in place the technology for crude oil monitoring. The draft PIB is in final stages, while a sweeping governance structure for NNPC and the industry is being finalised. Meanwhile, the refineries’ taskforce is moving to curb waste and promote the privatisation of the refineries.

Nonetheless, owing to the minister’s effort to sanitise the oil importation regime, she appointed a new executive secretary for PPPRA, Mr. Reginald Stanley, who has streamlined and drastically reduced the quarterly allocations for the importation of petroleum products. This ensured that there was availability of petrol nationwide. Alison-Madueke also compelled the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to streamline the crude oil lifting guidelines for the year to enable more local companies participate in the scheme. Also, after several months of discord with ExxonMobil, the minister, in conjunction with NNPC, was able to conclude negotiations with the US oil company on the renewal of its oil leases for another 20 years. She has announced that expired leases held by Shell and Chevron will be renewed by June this year.

Under the gas-to-power programme to facilitate the availability of gas under new fiscal terms to thermal power stations in the country, the minister announced a 12-month emergency plan and appointed Mr. Kunle Allen, who will report directly to her, to head the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria Limited. The 12-month emergency programme is aimed at fast-tracking the construction of pipelines and gas metering facilities for the thermal power stations and the exploration and production of gas development projects by oil companies in the Niger Delta for the domestic market.

FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed
Bala Mohammed/Expanding and Securing the FCT ****
Alhaji Bala Mohammed, a senator before he joined the federal cabinet in April 2010, is not a new hand at the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory which he superintends.

Since his return to the ministry in the new cabinet of President Jonathan, he has brought to bear on the ministry his managerial skills as a technocrat and his political savvy. Under his watch, the FCT ministry plans three new districts — Katampe, Maitama Extension and Kagini 1 — in the capital territory to accommodate the rapidly growing population. The opening up of the districts heralded the inauguration of infrastructure works to provide 70,000 kilometres of road network, including other accessory infrastructure in the new areas.

Besides his commitment to the expansion of the Abuja metropolis, Mohammed has created a conducive environment that has attracted about $10 billion to the FCT since his appointment. He has aggressively pursued land administration reform, especially by reinvigorating the Abuja Geographical Information Systems and the Land Department. This includes the introduction of a new e-payment system in AGIS and making the two units full-fledged departments.

All these have contributed to reducing incidents of land fraud, which was rampant in Abuja and hastened the processing of land documentation.

However, his administration has paid little attention to the satellite towns populated by the masses. The squalor of the suburbs, as shown by poor infrastructure, a degrading environment and poor housing conditions, is in contradistinction to the sparkling ambience of Asokoro, Maitama and Wuse, among others, where well-heeled businessmen, politicians, senior civil servants live.

The minister also came under fire for the undue exuberance he displayed when he proposed to rename Maitama Extension after Jonathan.
Complementing Mohammed is Jumoke Akinjide, Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory.

Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi
Bolaji Abdullahi/Competent Manager of Two Ministries ****
Until last week when he was redeployed as Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi, since he joined the federal cabinet last year, was in charge of the Ministry of Youth Development. However, before his redeployment, he had been supervising the Sports Ministry following the resignation of its former minister, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman, to enable him to contest in the last governorship election in Sokoto State.
Therefore, his assessment is better done under his former ministry where he initiated a paradigm shift shortly after his assumption of duty.

As part of his commitment to reposition the National Youth Service Corps scheme, he was able to push through a pay rise for the participants in line with the new national minimum wage. Corps members now earn N19,200 per month as against N9,000. He liaised with other appropriate government agencies and security chiefs to ensure corps members’ safety and security.

With his sight set on empowering Nigerian youths, he also initiated the Youth Employment Project to provide youths with skills and necessary training to help them in getting jobs or becoming self-employed. The project is targeted at equipping about 500,000 youths annually with the skills to improve their living conditions.

In addition to this, his former ministry was one of the three ministries President Goodluck Jonathan saddled with the responsibility of executing the federal government’s job scheme tagged, Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YOU WIN). The scheme, which is expected to generate over 100,000 jobs within four years, was created by the ministries of Finance, Youth Development and Communication Technology with the support of the World Bank and DFID. The special job scheme will cost the government N50 billion.

Before his designation as the de facto Minister of Sports, Abdullahi tactfully resolved the crisis in the country’s football administration through a peaceful resolution of all the court cases against the Nigeria Football Federation. He also assisted in securing funds for the preparation of Team Nigeria for the July 2012 summer Olympics games in London. His management of the sports ministry led to calls that he be made the de facto minister to overhaul the sports sector.


Trade and Investment Minister, Olusegun Aganga
Olusegun Aganga/Effectively Promoting Trade and Investment ****
Olusegun Aganga, the Minister of Trade and Investments, is one of the President Jonathan’s foot soldiers in his bid to reposition the nation’s economy. A former Minister of Finance, Aganga, among others, spearheaded the revival of the moribund textile industry in Nigeria.

Under his watch, his ministry embarked on the reinvestment of a 20 per cent levy on imported textile materials, a development which industry watchers say signals an improvement of government intervention in the industry.
It is also to his credit that the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) embarked on a review of Nigeria’s trade policy.

The minister earlier in the month disclosed that the committee to review the trade policy had already submitted its draft report, paving the way for the adoption of a new trade policy.
The minister has implemented a number of initiatives aimed at attracting investment to the country.

These include relaxing visa requirements for businessmen wanting to invest in Nigeria and granting tax breaks and other incentives to businesses investing in key sectors of the economy.

He has also spent a lot time on the road making the country competitive and showcasing business opportunities to potential foreign investors.
Complementing Aganga is Samuel Ortom, Minister of State for Trade and Investment.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Olugbenga Ashiru
Olugbenga Ashiru/Expanding Nigeria’s Frontiers ****
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru promoted the concept of citizen diplomacy, which was anchored on the welfare and respect of Nigerians at home and abroad. In line with the concept, the Nigerian government recognised Libya’s National Transitional Council last year in a move to ensure the safety of Nigerians trapped in that country during its revolution against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. Nigeria also responded swiftly to the controversial deportation of its nationals from South Africa in March.

Under Ashiru’s headship of the foreign affairs ministry, Nigeria demonstrated a strong commitment to the promotion of democracy and peace in Africa. The Framework Agreement on the situation in Mali, concluded by ECOWAS, was largely inspired by Nigeria after a meeting with the special envoys of the Malian junta who visited Abuja in April.

Ashiru saw to it that Nigeria further deepened and strengthened engagements with its neighbours in the areas of security and economic cooperation, as the country played an active role in the promotion of security and cooperation in the Gulf of Guinea and the Lake Chad Basin.

Nigeria’s participation in world affairs was enhanced with election of its nationals to world bodies such as the executive board of UNESCO for a term of four years in November last year in Paris, the governing board of the United Nations Environmental Programme in November last year, and Economic and Social Council in October last year.

A Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adamu Mohammed, was elected Vice President of INTERPOL, representing Africa, in Hanoi, Vietnam, in October 2011 last year.

There was also the re-election of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, to the International Law Commission last November and election of Dr. Chile Eboe-Osuji as one of the six judges of the International Criminal Court in November last year. In his first year, the minister was able to review and re-negotiate several bilateral agreements with some countries, including the Joint Commissions, Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (IPPAs) and Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASA), as well as pacts on taxation, science and technology, agriculture, energy and power, solid minerals, education, culture and tourism.

The country also resuscitated its bi-national commissions with several countries such as South Africa and the United States of America. Complementing Ashiru are Prof. Viola Onwuliri and Alhaji Nurudeen Mohammed, Ministers of State for Foreign Affairs.

Labour Minister, Emeka Wogu
Emeka Wogu/Striking a Balance between Government and Labour ****
Wogu, Minister of Labour and Productivity, has been one of the most visible members of President Goodluck Jonathan cabinet in the past one year for obvious reasons. The twin issues of the national minimum wage and the attempt to remove the subsidy on petrol have pitted the labour unions against the federal government within the period.

It is to the credit of the labour minister that while the deadlock over the subsidy removal issue was broken after a six-day general strike, the battle for the minimum wage was also fought and resolved on the negotiating table under the watchful eyes of Wogu and his team.

His handling of the national minimum wage helped the government avert a strike by federal public sector workers last August.

In addition to tough negotiations with the labour unions in the last one year, Wogu was also instrumental to the institution of industrial harmony in the civil service and other unionised private sector organisations such as the banks which had to lay off workers following the recapitalisation exercise.

Minister of State, Finance, Yerima Lawal Ngama
YERIMA LAWAL NGAMA/Managing FAAC with Tact ****
Dr. Yerima Lawal Ngama, the Minister of State for Finance, is one of the most active ministers of state under the current administration. Ngama assists the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who has an unwieldy scope of responsibilities. It is natural for Ngama to be saddled with the responsibility of holding forth for her in some key areas of the economy.

As the chairman of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, Ngama presides over the monthly sharing of revenue from the Federation Account among the three tiers of government apart from making valuable input into the preparation of annual budgetary estimates of revenue and expenditure for the federal government. Dealing with 36 state Commissioners of Finance perpetually demanding that the Excess Crude Account be emptied, requires considerable tact and patience, which Ngama used to great advantage to prevent implosions during FAAC meetings.


The Average Performers...

Transport Minister, Idris Umar
Idris Umar/Work in Progress in Transportation ***
The Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, generated a master plan for the transformation and security of the country’s inland waterways. This is expected to enhance water transportation and make for effective utilisation of the country’s waterways, which have, largely, been underutilised. His ministry completed the dredging of the Lower River Niger, while work is ongoing on the construction of other navigational facilities to open up the strategic water link between the north and south of Nigeria.

The ministry under Umar tried to also ensure quick and effective service delivery by streamlining agencies at the seaports from 14 to six and restoring 24-hour services at the Lagos ports.

It also backed a ports expansion programme under the supervision of the Nigerian Ports Authority to dredge the Lagos ports and for the construction of Greenfield port and an export free zone port in Akwa Ibom State.

The transport ministry under his supervision also continued with the rehabilitation of the railway system in the country to meet modern standards. While the efforts of the minister were noteworthy, progress in the achievement of many of the strategic plans of the Ministry of Transport were very slow.

Rail transportation still has a long way to go and water transportation remained rudimentary, despite the country’s enormous water resources.

Tourism Minister, Edem Duke
Edem Duke/Right Words, Little Resources ***
Minister for Culture and Tourism, Edem Duke, obviously came to the office with a deep knowledge of the nation’s tourism sector. It is to his credit that the president has approved the takeoff of Tourism Development Fund for Nigeria, which Duke said would enable the ministry to seek private sector funding for its tourism development programmes.

In his one year in office, Duke showed an uncommon determination to reposition the tourism and culture sector as a major contributor to the Nigerian economy, even as he promised to work as a team with the private sector stakeholders, foreign investors and staff of his ministry to make Nigeria the ultimate tourism destination in Africa.

His commitment has been galvanised by the fact that tourism has the potential to create thousands of jobs and contribute a lot more to GDP, as it does in several tourism-dependent countries for the foreign exchange earnings.

In this respect, he worked at streamlining most of the major annual festivals and shows held in various states of the federation to ensure that they do not clash and so that they can be listed on global tourism calendars. He also worked assiduously at promoting Nigeria’s diverse tourism attractions at international forums and ensuring that key festivals such as the Abuja Carnival have a better focus.

Caption: Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe Godsday Orubebe/Challenged by Restiveness and Low Budget ***
Godsday Orubebe as Minister of Niger Delta Affairs occupies a strategic position in the cabinet of President Goodluck Jonathan given the fact that the Niger Delta harbours Nigeria’s oil reserves and is responsible for generating about 80 per cent of the nation’s revenue. The ministry, under Orubebe, has made critical investment in the social and public sectors of the various oil-bearing communities in the region.

The programme is being executed under the Niger Delta Collaborative Development Framework.
He has so far been able to achieve 50 per cent completion rate on the crucial East-West Road, which is slated for completion by 2013. The ministry also intensified security and consultative meetings to sustain peace in the region.

This has led to increased oil production in the region. The ministry, in collaboration with the Niger Delta Development Commission, further focused on infrastructure development of the region, as 11 road projects are currently going on in the Niger Delta area. However, like his predecessors, Orubebe has not been able to effectively implement the Niger Delta master plan, formulated to ensure the rapid development of the region.

Also, the non-completion of the East-West Road has continued to cause transportation pangs for motorists and commuters in the area.

Increasing oil theft and rising cases of illegal refineries were seen as signs of growing discontent in the Niger Delta arising from the failure of the ministry to effectively tackle critical problems that could impact positively on the welfare of the people.
Complementing Orubebe is Hajia Zainab Kuchi, Minister of State for Niger Delta.

Communications Minister, Omobola Johnson
Mobola Johnson/Battling with Narrow Broadband Access ***
One of the objectives she set for herself immediately she came on board as Minister of Communication Technology was to achieve 50 per cent broadband access nationwide. Though she is nowhere near achieving this target, the Nigerian Communications Commission under her ministry impressed phone subscribers recently when it imposed a N1.17 billion fine on the four major network operators for poor quality of services.
Sources in her ministry say a new communications policy is also in the offing at the instance of the minister.

Works Minister, Mike Onolememen
Mike Onolememen/A Lot More Still Needs to be Done ***
With some of the nation’s road network, especially those linking the states and some important city roads, under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Works, Mike Onolememen, an architect in charge of the ministry, is a key player in the Jonathan administration. Shortly after he assumed duty at the ministry, he and his officials assessed the challenges facing road construction in the country to include: inadequate planning; poor design; ineffective supervision and poor funding.

The assessment gave them an idea on how to tackle the problems that have made travelling on Nigerian roads a risky venture. The minister, who inherited 60 ongoing projects, reorganised the ministry by creating six zonal directorates in a bid to improve efficiency. Among the projects he has handled so far is the reconstruction of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, including the expansion of the road, drainage works, construction of a trailer park and the construction of a dedicated bridge leading into Tin-Can Island Port from Liverpool Round-about.

The Benin-Ore-Shagamu highway, a 262.5km long stretch that has become a nightmare for east-west bound motorists and commuters, is also under reconstruction by Reynolds Construction Company Nigeria Limited and Borini Prono & Company Nigeria Limited. Meanwhile, the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja dualisation road project, whose completion has been stalled by poor funding, is partially being rehabilitated to make it more motorable.

Other roads being worked on are the Kano-Maiduguri dualisation road project, the Onitsha-Enugu road project, and intensification of work on the Ibadan-Ilorin Road dualisation project. The minister has embarked on a road sector reform that has led to the recommendation for the establishment of the National Roads Fund and the Federal Roads Authority to drive road development in the country by attracting funds to the sector.

Under him, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency has launched preventive
maintenance and road surveillance programmes on the Abuja-Kaduna, Benin-Onitsha and Onitsha-Owerri highways while six mobile laboratories have been acquired for material testing and quality. However, the minister’s efforts have not yielded much in alleviating sufferings on Nigerian roads, some of which have become death traps.
Complementing Onolememen is Alhaji Bashir Yugudu, Minister of State for Works.

National Planning Minister, Shamsudeen Usman
Shamsudeen Usman/Making an Impact in Planning ***
Dr. Usman, Minister of National Planning, is not new to the federal executive council, having served in many capacities. A soft-spoken economist, Usman has worked conscientiously with sister ministries like Finance, Power, Agriculture and Trade and Investments.

One of the projects dear to him is the rebasing of the country’s gross domestic project currently being worked on by National Bureau of Statistics under the coordination of the National Planning Commission.

Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Zainab Maina
Zainab Maina/Improving the Lot of Women ***
Hajiya Zainab Maina, an indigene of Adamawa State, is the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development. Maina, 63, was involved in several activities and organisations designed to uplift the socio-economic and political wellbeing of women prior to her appointment as minister about a year ago.

Since her appointment, Maina stepped up activism towards women economic empowerment and the elimination of harmful societal practices that affect women, tying successes in the efforts to improve the lives of women to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. She also brought issues such as human trafficking, prostitution, child labour, and rape as well as effective implementation of the Child Rights Act to the front burner.

The ministry under Maina raised support for state governments in dealing with the challenges of the Vesico Vaginal Fistula disease.

The ministry also displayed a commitment towards improving women’s entrepreneurship through the provision of credit facilities and skills acquisition opportunities.

Being in a wholly familiar terrain, Maina succeeded in raising the level of understanding and cooperation between the ministry and non-governmental organisations, particularly, those focused on feminine issues. Such cooperation was critical in improving socio-political and economic awareness among women, especially in the rural areas and increased advocacy on issues that affect women.


Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu
Onyebuchi Chukwu/Addressing Health Challenges ***
Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, an Ebonyi State indigene, made some progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in the health sector by facilitating the implementation of a five-year strategic development roadmap.

He was able to complete many ongoing projects, including the National Strategic Health Development Plan and acquisition of cancer screening machines for some tertiary institutions. He moved to reduce tension among professionals in the health sector in order to build team spirit. He also accelerated the refurbishment of structures and equipment in the country’s health institutions, especially at the tertiary level.

Under Chukwu, the federal government initiated a gradual takeover of vesico vaginal fistula centres in the states for proper funding and management. The health ministry pursued aggressively efforts to reduce child and female mortality and morbidity rates by strengthening the midwifery service scheme, reducing the price of ACT, the officially recommended brand of anti-malaria drug, and intensification of insecticidal nets distribution across the country.

There was also an intensified effort targeted at family planning through a free commodities and services distribution campaign. His best efforts, however, failed to revolutionise improvement in health care services across the country, as federal medical centres and teaching hospitals remained ill-equipped, under-staffed and under-funded.
Lack of improvement in medical services meant that more and more Nigerians were forced to travel overseas to countries such as India, Europe, Egypt and Saudi Arabia for better health care services.

Complementing Chukwu is Dr. Mohammed Pate, Minister of State for Health.


Minister of Lands and Housing, Ms. Amma Pepple
Amma Pepple/Planning for Mass Housing ***
Ms. Amma Pepple, Minister of Lands and Housing, is from Rivers State. She was Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance and briefly Head of the Civil Service of the Federation before her appointment as minister. For the past one year, Pepple worked on a major plan to build mass housing projects for artisans and medium and low-income earners in the populace to buy homes at reduced prices.

In this regard, her ministry initiated partnerships with states to secure land for the housing projects in which a one-bedroom flat is billed to cost N1.5 million, while a two-bedroom flat will sell for N2.5 million, and a three-bedroom flat will cost N3 million.

Pepple pursued a three-pronged approach to the country’s housing deficit, involving increase in the quantity and quality of government infrastructure spending, developing a framework for joint financing of projects on a public-public partnership basis between the federal and state governments and between states, and creating an enabling environment for rewarding private investment.

So far, however, most of the housing development schemes initiated by Pepple are yet to take off, much less of visibly touching the lives of the citizens.

Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku
Labaran Maku/More Work, Less Talk ***
Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, has since his reappointment about a year ago tried to live up to the ministry’s mandate of managing the image of the people and government of Nigeria through an information system that facilitates access by citizenry and the global community. He started off with the development of a strategic work plan for public information dissemination anchored on multimedia platforms.

Maku tried to improve the capacity of staff of the ministry’s parastatals and boost their morale through increments in allowances for media workers with effect from July last year.

The ministry under Maku intensified security awareness campaigns in line with the mood of the country.It has also introduced multi-media strategy to sell government’s policies and finalised efforts towards the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act.

The ministry also introduced additional platforms on radio and television for public functionaries to reach out to the public, such as the FRCN 30 Minutes Programme, which features ministers in interactive sessions with the public every week. It also organised forums for ministers and other public functionaries to appear on regular television and radio programmes to discuss government policies.

These included periodic press briefings, Radio Link, Tuesday Night Live on NTA, One-on-One, and NAN Forum.

With Maku at the help affairs at the Ministry of Information, there was an enormous improvement in the dissemination of information from the government to the public and vice versa. But he was criticised for excessively pandering to the government’s whim, often at the expense of the masses, despite his activist background.

Bello Mohammed. Defence Minister
Bello H. Mohammed/Improving Military Capability ***
The Ministry of Defence under Dr. Bello Mohammed has in the last one year paid more attention to repositioning the military through better equipment to raise the combat readiness of the three segments of the armed forces—army, navy and air force— and improved living conditions in the barracks. The ministry acquired an ocean-going warship, NNS Thunder and some Shaldag fast patrol boats to boost the naval fleet. It also bought Mi-35 helicopters and refurbished some C-130H aircraft to raise the efficiency of the Nigerian Air Force.

The minister further pursued welfare scheme, which include the construction and refurbishment of 18 military barracks nationwide and continued reform of the military pension scheme to reduce the time it takes retired armed forces personnel to access their benefits.

However, the security crisis in the country caused by terrorist attacks from Boko Haram, prompted the ministry to involve troops in the nation’s internal security management contrary to their core mandate.

The military’s involvement, through the establishment of joint task forces, especially in the Niger Delta, has helped to curtail restiveness in the area and created a conducive atmosphere for oil production activities. Besides, Nigerian troops were deployed on peacekeeping missions in Sudan, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone.

In the northern states, where the armed forces were deployed under the joint task force to combat the Boko Haram menace, the ministry achieved limited success, as the insurgency by the Islamist group rose to alarming proportions.

Members of the armed forces were also accused by residents in some northern states of highhandedness and subjecting innocent people to abuses.

Despite the ministry’s efforts, Mohammed as minister still has a lot to do in raising the operational efficiency of the military and ensuring better welfare for the personnel, especially those in junior ranks.
Complementing Mohammed is Olusola Obada, Minister of State for Defence.

Minister of Justice, Mohammed B. Adoke
Mohammed B. Adoke/ Holding Steady at Justice ***
As the chief law officer of the federation, Mohammed Adoke, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, is saddled with giving the federal government legal advice and supervising some anti-graft agencies, particularly the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, among others. Under Adoke, the ministry launched justice sector reforms aimed at improving service delivery.

According to details of the reforms, as contained in a document, “Strategy for the Implementation of Justice Reforms in Nigeria,” the ministry outlined an eight-point agenda to drive the process.

These included reform of the criminal justice system, legislative reforms and advocacy, promotion and protection of human rights, improved international cooperation mechanisms and ensuring compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. Legal education also received attention with the establishment of two more campuses of the Nigerian Law School in Yenagoa and Yola. These are in addition to the four campuses in Lagos, Enugu, Kano and Abuja. The fight against drugs and human trafficking has got fresh impetus, too.

However, the minister came under fire over how he exercised his supervisory role of the anti-graft agencies. He was also enmeshed in the controversy over the crisis surrounding the fate of Justice Ayo Salami, the suspended President of the Court of Appeal whose recall by the National Judicial Council has split the nation along political lines.


The Underperformers...


Poower Minister, Bart Nnaji
Bart Nnaji/Overpowered by Power **
If the state of power generation and distribution in the country is to be used as a barometer to assess the Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, in the last one year, Nigerians will most certainly not give him a pass mark.

This is because of the failure of the government to significantly improve the availability of electricity to consumers, one year after Nnaji came on board as minister of this critical sector.

However, it is to his credit that power generation peaked at 4,400MW between September and November last year. But this was short-lived and could not be sustained due to the usual problems of shortfalls in gas supply to key thermal stations and the dilapidated transmission and distribution infrastructure. The power minister had admitted that transmission and the management of the transmission network is a major problem in the sector. But a recent report on the power sector showed that the national grid is in a complete mess.
Nnaji, however, in one year displayed a great commitment to the implementation of the power sector reform road map.

His commitment was reinforced by the fact that the private sector is better positioned to transform the sector and make electricity available to consumers. In this regard, he has doggedly pursued the establishment of the new market structure for the power sector through the establishment of the Bulk Purchase Company, securing World Bank guarantees for operators in the sector, fully decentralising the Power Holding Company of Nigeria by empowering the CEOs of the six generation and 11 distribution companies that were created from its unbundling, and the establishment of the National Electricity Management Company that will take over and disposal of PHCN’s stranded assets and liabilities. He also got the CEOs of the Gencos and Discos to sign performance-based contracts to improve performance in the areas or zones that they oversee.
Those that fell short of expectations were summarily dismissed by Nnaji with the president’s backing.

However, he has had a tough year handling the electricity labour unions in the sector and spent a lot of time in a cat and mouse game with the unions, which are resistant to the reform of the sector.

This forced the minister to take drastic measures by seeking the president’s permission to deploy soldiers to electricity installations nationwide, in order to checkmate members of the union who were constantly threatening to go on strike. One of the issues that pitted the minister against the unions was the biometric exercise embarked on by his ministry to weed out ghost workers in PHCN before the payment of their enhanced wages. Complementing Nnaji is Darius Ishaku, Minister of State for Power.

Minister of Science and Technology, Ita Okon Bassey
Ita Okon Bassey/All Words, Little Action **
Professor Ita Okon Bassey, Minister of Science and Technology, hails from Akwa Ibom State. An academic and Analytical Nuclear Physicist, Bassey 59, was a researcher at the Nuclear Research Centre, Centre for Energy Research and Training, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, before his appointment as minister last July.

Bassey showed great enthusiasm in exploiting the potentials of space technology in the efforts to boost Nigeria’s socio-economic standing in the comity of nations.

Under him, the Science and Technology Ministry launched two low earth observation satellites – NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X as well as a communication satellite-NigComSat-1R.

The ministry also launched a programme for the study of rocket design and use and trained about 100 Nigerians in the handling of space applications. It intensified bio-security and bioscience initiatives with the pilot production of malaria Hepatitis B and pregnancy test kits, development of thermophilic anaerobic bio-digester for the management of bio-degradable waste, and production of organic fertiliser, among others.

Bassey is an advocate of the commercialisation of the research and development efforts of the country’s tertiary institutions. He designed an ambitious space technology development roadmap involving the launch of three additional satellites by 2015, namely, NigeriaSAR-1 satellite, a security satellite, as well as NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-3, as backup for the communication satellite. Other ambitious programmes included the sending of a Nigerian astronaut into space before 2015, launch of a locally manufactured satellite by 2018, development of a rocket and propulsion system in 2025, cultivation of allies in space technology electronics and software by 2026, and launch of a Nigerian made satellite in 2028.

Though, the country is yet to begin to feel the impact of the scientific and technological initiatives of Bassey’s ministry on the economy and the citizens, he has helped to improve awareness on the developmental potentials of science and technology in the drive for economic and political development.

Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia
Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia/Still at Odds with the Environment **
Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia, from Kaduna State, tried to tackle some of the enormous environmental challenges faced by the country since her appointment, though many critical environmental issues remained unresolved. The country is faced with the problems of deforestation, climate change, waste management, erosion flooding, pollution, desertification, gas flaring, and oil spills.

The ministry achieved some success in addressing the issues of biodiversity conservation by completing the first phase of the national forest programme facility and raised tens of millions of assorted tree seedlings nationwide under the presidential initiative on afforestation. The minister was able to deploy about six million seedlings in seven desertification frontline states in the country and improve ecotourism and restore degraded sites across the country. Erosion and flood control projects have also been executed in 62 locations nationwide.

Similarly, Mailafia made efforts to enforce environmental standards and regulations, and achieve some progress in the areas of waste management, environmental health, climate change, renewable energy, environmental assessment, forestry research and environmental governance.

However, she seemed to be hamstrung by a lack of political will to really enforce environmental standards in the oil and gas sector, especially as it affects the oil multinational companies. Gas flaring by the oil companies continued unabated, with deleterious effects on the land and people in the oil producing communities, despite several deadlines by the federal government to stop the flares.

Two major environmental disasters also occurred under her watch when Shell’s Bonga oil field developed a leak, spilling the equivalent of 30,000 – 40,000 barrels of oil in the country’s territorial waters. Another was Total’s gas production spill, which took the French multinational more than a month to contain. It is uncertain how much remediation and restitution Mailafia demanded of both oil firms for the accidents at their production facilities.

Sarah Ochekpe, Minister of Water Resources
Sarah Ochekpe/Dry Taps Still Pervasive **
One of the projects embarked upon by the Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochekpe, was the public education on water and sanitation, which is aimed at changing Nigerians’ attitude to water and waste management.

Under her watch, the Northern Ishan Water Supply project in Edo State, with a capacity of nine million litres of water, per day was completed at the cost of N2.5 billion and the project is to service the communities of Uromi, Ubiaja, Ugengu, Ugboha and Iguben, which have a population of 500,000.

Another completed project is the 10 million litres per day Mangu water treatment plant in Plateau State which was completed at the cost of N1 billion and would serve Gindiri communities and Mangu township.

Irrespective, availability of pipe borne water in more than three-quarters of the country remains a pipe dream.
As a result, waterborne diseases such as cholera and dysentery remain a recurring problem in the country and kill hundreds of people annually.

Education Minister, Ruqayyatu Rufai
Ruqayyatu Rufai/Education in Crisis **
Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai, an accomplished educationist calls the shot at the Ministry of Education. Appointed first by Jonathan after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, she was retained in the ministry during the constitution of the federal cabinet last year.

She has stayed the course of her priorities area: access and equity, standards and quality assurance, technical and vocational education and teacher training, as well as funding and resource utilisation that form the planks of her reforms for education.

As minister of this critical ministry, she has been able to actualise the dream of reviewing the curriculum for senior secondary education, which was ratified by the National Council of Education at its last meeting.

The new curriculum approves the study of 42 subjects in four different categories of senior secondary education: science, humanities, technology and business. She also pushed for the introduction of an initiative to cater for itinerant Islamic pupils in the north so that they could receive western education along with their learning of the Koran. This is to address the special needs of this class of pupils who are used as canon fodders in fomenting crisis in the north.

Efforts have also been made to increase access to tertiary education with the establishment of more government-funded universities, along with private ones.
The minister in March inaugurated visitation panels to scrutinise the state of the federal government’s 21 polytechnics and 20 colleges of education to ensure that they are operating in line with the mandate setting them up.

However, the minister’s efforts have not translated into the production of quality students both at secondary and tertiary levels.

Results of external examinations for secondary schools have been showing a decline in performance, while no Nigerian university is among the top 300 universities in the world. Complementing Rufai is Nyesom Wike, Minister of State for Education.

Minister of Police Affairs, Caleb Olubolade
Caleb Olubolade/Police in Dire Need of Facelift **
Caleb Olubolade, a retired navy captain, has the unenviable task of piloting the affairs at the Ministry of Police Affairs at a time of immense national security challenge. Nigeria has been under the siege of terrorism unleashed on northern states by a pseudo-religious group, Boko Haram. The police, which are supposed to tackle the menace, are grossly underprepared for the task as terrorism is a novel crime in Nigeria.

However, with help from other sister security agencies and international groups, Boko Haram came under fire and they were to some extent able to dislodge the sect’s leaders from their comfort zones. According to the minister, 33 suspected sect members have so far been arrested.

Reform in the police has lead to the introduction of more training facilities, including the upgrade of the Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil, Kano State, to a degree-awarding institution. Under the reform programme, officers and men have been given counter-terrorism training to equip them for modern day crime-fighting techniques.

Efforts to reposition the police have led to the dismantling of roadblocks, a haven for corruption among junior and middle ranking officers.

The police force is, however, far from being efficient, although the minister has rationalised the inadequacies which he blamed on faulty policies that he said were being reviewed to optimise performance.

The Non-performers...

Mohammed Musa Sada, Minister of Mines and Steel Development
Mohammed Musa Sada/Rudderless Management of Mines and Steel *
A former Commissioner of Works, Housing and Transportation in Katsina State between 2007, he joined the federal cabinet as Minister of Mines and Steel Development in April 2010. Mohammed Musa is a young technocrat but failed to make his mark in the all important mines and steel sector.

Instead he devoted too much time and energy in making a case for additional government funding in the steel plants such as the Ajaokuta Steel Company, which the government mismanaged.

Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Morro
Abba Moro/At the Mercy of Insecurity *
The Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Morro, from Benue State, was seriously challenged by the threat to the country’s security from the Boko Haram Islamic terror sect. His ministry is charged with the responsibility of maintaining internal security, but with the unremitting threats to lives and property posed by Boko Haram in the north and the growing security nightmare in the south occasioned by unresolved assassinations, many Nigerians would hardly give him top marks in terms of performance.

Moro blamed the situation on what he called “the grave ambivalence in the defined responsibilities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs”. Such inconsistencies, according to him, included his lack of control over internal security agencies like the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Customs Service, Nigerian Prison Service, Passport Office, and the Federal Fire Service.

Perhaps, as an expression of his frustration with the organisational structure of the country’s internal security affairs, the minister warned in February, following a jailbreak in Kogi State in which about 119 inmates escaped, that comptrollers of prison will be held responsible for any jailbreak in their respective commands.

Rising insecurity led to criticism of Moro for the failure by his ministry to dialogue and end the spate of terrorism by Boko Haram.

Despite his lamentation, the Nigerian Prison Service directly under his control did not fare better as the country’s prisons remained over-crowded, under-staffed and under-funded.

Even though the number of detainees awaiting trial declined marginally under his watch, this did not translate to improved security at the prisons, especially in the northern parts of the country, where Boko Haram frequently attacked prisons to secure the release of its members.








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